The Future of Creativity is Here: Why AI Will Not Replace Artists, It Will Expand Them

From audiobook narration to poetry at MoMA, this episode goes inside the real creative shift happening right now. Recorded live at the Aspen Ideas Economy Conference.

Welcome back to The AI Download with host Shira Lazar. This episode was recorded live at the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Ideas Economy in Newark, where Shira sat down for a powerful conversation about the new frontier of creativity in the age of AI.

Joining Shira on stage are two trailblazers approaching AI from very different angles:  Bob Carrigan, CEO of Audible and Sasha Stiles,  AI poet and multimedia artist featured at MoMA.  

Together, they explore how AI is reshaping art, authorship, storytelling, and the creator economy. This is not a conversation about fear or replacement. It is about evolution, opportunity, access, and how artists and companies can use these tools in ways that expand imagination rather than limit it.

If you care about where creativity is going next, this is one of those discussions you will feel long after it ends.

WHY THIS MATTERS

AI is changing the way we create, consume, distribute, and value creative work.
Yet most of the public narrative focuses on anxiety rather than possibility.

This conversation reframes the moment we are in.
Not as an ending, but a new chapter.

WHAT WE COVER

• Why companies that replace humans with AI are missing the real opportunity
• How Audible is using AI to expand access to audiobooks worldwide
• Why artists like Sasha Stiles are embracing AI as a poetic collaborator
• How voice models can empower narrators rather than replace them
 • The tension between originality, sampling, and training data
 • What it means to create in a world shaped by both human and non human intelligence
 • Why we are at a Gutenberg level shift in how ideas travel

KEY TAKEAWAY

AI does not erase creativity.
AI expands the canvas.

The real question is not whether technology will change art…It already has.
The question is…How will we choose to make art now.

GUESTS:
Bob Carrigan, CEO of Audible   | LINKEDIN   |   X 

Sasha Stiles -  AI poet and multimedia artist featured at MoMA   | A Living Poem | X 

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Credits

This episode of The AI Download was hosted, created, and executive produced by Shira Lazar. Executive Producer Michele Musso, Creative Director Nadia Giosia with Mint Labs. Music by PALA, Catalina Coastline (licensed under Boss Soundstripe Productions by BMI). Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Shira Lazar. All rights reserved.